So, maybe I waited to take linguistics until the tail end of my undergrad program because I heard what the professor was like. I heard through the grapevine this particular professor, who made sure everyone knew he was from Madrid, calculated down to a 1/4 of a point. I didn't need this in my life; I was busy living the dream as a twenty-something. Well, the time came and Dr. F-G was serious about his phonemes and love for Krashen. As much as I hated the workload, I was learning a TON. And yes, there were several 1/4 points I missed, but overall I feel comfortable sharing THIS with you, knowing you'll have some questions Google might not be able to answer. I am not a professor of linguistics, but I think this is an especially important component of second language acquisition. When our students are working through pronunciation, which takes more time for some than for others, it is important to be patient. It is also important to be supportive.
For a long time I gave my dad a real hard time because it's always been a challenge for him to pronounce the word millionaire (even with 35 years stateside), but I realize now maybe I was being a jerk all those years. All he wanted to talk about was what he would do when he won the lottery (pay for my college education, take care of his family, etc.), and I shut him down before the conversation even really started with what I considered to be more important - his pronunciation. I'm just ranting right now, I know, but I would hate for any of this to be happening in your classrooms (or mine!). I imagine a kid who is trying to share a thought or idea, and another kid cuts him/her off for subbing a "D" for a "TH," like dat one is my favorite character. Being sensitive to how challenging it is not only to learn another language, but to also pronounce it flawlessly, is something we need to be aware of, myself included. Sorry, Dad! Scrolling through your grade book, who is not passing your class right now? At the beginning of the semester, only four weeks into the school year, this is a time where a missing signed syllabus could be causing a student to "fail" a class. Or maybe it's something more, like a Chemistry lab write up. No matter the significance of the assignment that is missing or incomplete, the bigger idea is that the student (and his parent/s) sees a big, giant, larger-than-life F. Is this the worse thing in the world? Probably not. Some would argue the student needs to be held accountable for their actions, good and bad alike: "If Timmy listened and followed directions, he would've known the assignment was due last Thursday. Susie and the rest of the class managed to get it in and on time." Where the slope gets slippery is with many of our students, either due to modifications and/or accommodations via a 504 or an IEP, or, their skill set as an English learner. Did Timmy understand what the directions were? Does Timmy have a computer at home to complete the work? How did you specifically ensure Timmy not only knew the expectations of the assignment, but also how the work was to be submitted?
There have been many times I've spoken with a teacher - an AMAZING teacher who loves students and wants nothing more than for them to be successful - who have commented back they had no idea Timmy had limited proficiency in English listening skills. They had no idea this would lead Timmy down a spiral that would look something like this:
You see where this is going. Is this the case every time? No, absolutely not. Is this something that's happened more than once? Yes, absolutely. Early communication with your students, especially English Learners, can prevent this type of downward spiral from happening. The feedback I consistently hear is "s/he is a great kid, but they're just not getting work in." And this is at the end of the semester, often after the point of no return. Let's make a promise to be better for our students' sake. Let's be proactive in working and collaborating with all of our students to make sure they have equal access to our classes and our resources. Please watch THIS video, it is so, so powerful. Agree or agree to disagree. Alfie Kohn makes no mistake in being crystal clear about his perspectives on education and how many teachers are frankly doing it wrong (do you dangle the carrot?). Here is an excerpt from one of his blogs:
"Assessment literally means to sit beside, and that’s just what our most thoughtful educators urge us to do. Yetta Goodman coined the compound noun “kidwatching” to describe reading with each child to gauge his or her proficiency. Marilyn Burns insists that one-on-one conversations tell us far more about students’ mathematical understanding than a test ever could — since all wrong answers aren’t alike. Of course this assumes that we’re really interested in kids’ understanding, not merely their level of phonemic awareness or ability to apply an algorithm. The less ambitious one’s educational goals, the more likely that a test will suffice — and that the words testing and assessing will be used interchangeably." You can find the whole post HERE. If you're up for it, check out THIS video featuring Kohn speaking on education and competition. Skip to the 14:00 mark if you're pressed for time. And you won't want to miss what Kohn says at the 32:55 mark. This is from www.cultofpedagogy.com, by Jennifer González.
“Kids aren’t just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test,” says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. “If you really want the kids to learn, they’ve got to be engaged.” That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn’t have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice." Small groups! This is what we're already doing, right? The HTH way is for students to have the opportunity to problem solve amongst themselves, and for it to be related to something greater within the community - or at least bigger than a final exam. In order for this to happen, students have to appreciate the work as meaningful, that there is an important connection to what they're being asked to do. They must feel safe in the whole process, and that means open participation/questioning/reflection/etc. Feeling like they're an equal contributor to their group and classroom will empower students to take risks and ask more questions. We absolutely want students curious about the work they're doing. This gets me thinking about an interview (click HERE) with Carol Dweck. Now you've checked the link and saw the video is nearly an hour long, you're saying "Aleida, I don't have time for that." I hear you. Not even with this three day weekend did I have time for a bonus hour video. If you watch any snippet, please go to the 9:00 mark and watch the next few minutes. Cheers to hard work and knowing our students and families are better for it. Bienvenidos! Salubungin! أهلا بك! Willkommen! Tiếp rước!
The North County Village welcomes you back to the 2015-2016 school year! What will be most integral to students' success is the effort we put into our practice. Working with such a diverse group of learners proves to be rewarding after seeing the amazing projects and real-world connections they're making every day. These experiences can also be challenging, and for different reasons. Some educators make immediate connections with the SPED students while others are dependent on the Inclusion staff to bridge the gap. Some teachers are able to instinctively have tools for working with English learners (ELs) and others feel in the dark or intimidated. Here's the thing, specific teaching strategies that work for one kid work for all learners in your classroom, in some way, shape or form. Rather than think of EL strategies for only the English learners in your class, think of them as strategies for all learners (AL). I'm starting a new acronym, mainly because here at HTH (and at a ton of amazing schools around the globe) we promote equity for all learners by our full inclusion model. To be true to this we must continue to be open to being a reflective practitioner, asking ourselves how can we be better, what can we try that would benefit our students? |
AuthorI'm Aleida and I'm doing my best to support teachers working with all learners in their classrooms. Archives |